Democrats and environmental activists are putting pressure on US President Joe Biden to declare a “climate emergency” and unlock sweeping powers to combat global warming after broader legislation stalled in Congress.
Biden has already vowed to “take strong executive action” in the event that Congress fails to “address the climate crisis.”
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Meanwhile, White House officials are now weighing the possibility of an emergency declaration that would empower the president to cut oil drilling, stem fossil fuel flows and finance clean energy construction.
How would it work?
An emergency declaration by Biden would activate the powers established by a set of federal laws, including energy statutes, the National Emergencies Act, and the Stafford Emergency Assistance and Disaster Relief Act, which the president could exercise to address the climate crisis.
Biden could restrict or block crude exports thanks to a national security exemption in a 2015 law that would allow him to reimpose licensing requirements and other restrictions on those flows.
At the same time, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, enacted after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, could empower it to coordinate domestic transportation in a way that limits the movement of fossil fuels.
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Under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act that governs energy development in US coastal waters, it could also suspend offshore drilling, even on existing leases.
That provision was invoked to suspend some activity in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010.
What about clean energy?
A weather emergency would allow Biden to take advantage of a law typically used after major hurricanes and other natural disasters, the Stafford Emergency Assistance and Disaster Relief Act, to order the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). acronym in English) that builds renewable energy projects with federal money.
FEMA has a budget of $19 billion for fiscal year 2022 to address ongoing disasters, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group that is urging the move.
Biden could also use the Cold War-era Defense Production Act and the $650 billion-per-year federal procurement budget to make clean transportation technologies and generate renewable energy, according to a report from the center.
The president used the same law to boost the production of baby formula amid a national shortage. However, the law specifically contemplates energy production; the statute uniquely highlights renewable energy and storage as critical materials for national defense.
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That he can not do?
Some of the most powerful tools for fueling renewable energy and advanced energy manufacturing projects were tax credits, now blocked in Congress, that cannot be easily duplicated through executive order.
Any federal funding directed to the sector is finite and can quickly run out once a new president is in office.
Halting production on existing oil and gas leases is also complicated. The government may have to compensate oil companies for suspended or canceled leases they paid for hundreds of millions of dollars that they will no longer be able to use. That could be anathema to climate activists as well as fiscal conservatives.
Who supports the emergency declaration?
Currently, Biden is receiving criticism from supporters of the approach in Congress, although lProgressive climate activists have been urging the president to deploy emergency powers against global warming for more than a year.
Congressional representatives include Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats, including Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Jared Huffman of California.
The strategy is also backed by environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth Network, Food and Water Watch and more than 1,000 organizations that sent a letter to Biden urging this move.
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What are the risks?
Any move to halt oil and gas production could be politically disastrous for Biden, whose Administration is currently working to reduce high fuel prices before the midterm elections, in addition to its promise to boost energy flows to European allies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
And while there is precedent for using a national emergency declaration creatively — former President Donald Trump, for example, did it to divert military construction funds to build a wall along the U.S.-U.S. border. Mexico, power has limits.
big steps to limit the production, transportation and consumption of fossil fuels could be vulnerable
The efforts will surely be tested in the federal courts that have been reshaped by the confirmation of Trump’s conservative legal nominees.
The Supreme Court just underscored that risk with its 6-3 ruling that erodes the flexibility of the Environmental Protection Agency to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
“Although courts have generally given presidents wide latitude in emergency declarations,” major steps to limit fossil fuel production, transportation and consumption “could be vulnerable to legal challenges,” said Benjamin Salisbury, director Height Capital Markets research.
*With data from Bloomberg
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